Ubisoft Producer, Adrian Blunt, has said that the Wii U will no longer require the use of Friend Codes for online connectivity, but instead, Nintendo will offer an account based system similar to what is found on Xbox Live and the Playstation Network. This was revealed in an interview with MTV Multiplayer.

However, Joystiq reported that during Nintendo's recent developer roundtable, it appeared that the online features were wanted features for Wii U from Ubisoft, and are by no means confirmed. Nintendo did not comment specifically about the online features for their upcoming console.

The original quote read that the Wii U will feature “...the ability to easily find friends. Rather than using friend codes, which we've had in the past, we're able to connect players in a much easier way, which allows us to have a community that's playing together in the game."

Ubisoft is currently working on five titles for the Wii U, including Ghost Recon Online, which will rely heavily on Nintendo's future online infrastructure.

Its good that developers are putting pressure on Nintendo, and more importantly that Nintendo seems to be willing to comply. The DS supposedly stands for "Developer System" and was supposedly designed according to a developer's wishlist. It is time they applied that same philosophy to consoles as well.